David Benyamine (born 5 July 1972 in

Paris, France Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

) is a French professional

poker Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...

player with a

World Poker Tour The World Poker Tour (WPT) is an internationally televised gaming and entertainment brand. Since 2002, the World Poker Tour has operated a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting playdown and the ...

title. Benyamine was a professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player in his early career but had to retire because of shoulder pain. He was also a successful top ten

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . Cue sports, a category of stic ...

player in France. He learned poker at the age of 12 and plays high-stakes cash games on a regular basis. Benyamine is a Pot-Limit Omaha specialist.

Poker career

Benyamine started his career playing No Limit Hold’em cash in Aviation Club de France. He is a regular in the world’s most famous high stakes cash room at the

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, Bobby’s Room (now renamed Legend’s Room).

World Poker Tour

Benyamine has made four final tables in

(WPT) open events: the 2003 Grand Prix de Paris ( second season) – 1st place (€357,200); the 2004 L.A. Poker Classic (second season) – 6th place ($132,355); the 2008 Bellagio Cup IV ( seventh season) – 2nd place ($840,295) and the 2010 WPT Championship ( eighth season) – 4th place ($329,228). He won the Premier League of Poker IV. He is also the winner of the WPT Battle of Champions II invitational event, where he defeated a final table including fellow professionals

Hoyt Corkins Hoyt Bricken Corkins (born December 20, 1959 in Glenwood, Alabama) is an American professional poker player. Known for his softly-spoken voice and his aggressive style, Corkins has two World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour t ...

, Mel Judah,

Antonio Esfandiari Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari (; born December 8, 1978, as Amir Esfandiary), is a professional poker player and former professional magician, known for his elaborate chip tricks. Esfandiari was the face of the now-defunct poker site, Ultim ...

, and

Phil Laak Philip Courtney Laak (born September 8, 1972) is an Irish-American professional poker player and a poker commentator, now residing in Los Angeles, California. Laak holds a World Poker Tour (WPT) title, a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet, and ...

World Series of Poker

Benyamine is primarily a

cash game Cash games, also sometimes referred to as ring games or live action games, are poker games played with "real" Poker chip, chips and money at stake, often with no predetermined end time, with players able to enter and leave as they see fit. In co ...

player, but due to comments from his friends, he started playing tournaments more regularly during the

2008 World Series of Poker The 2008 World Series of Poker was the 39th annual World Series of Poker (WSOP). Held in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, the series began on May 30, 2008, and featured 55 poker championships in List of poker variants, s ...

. He has made four WSOP final tables, three of which were in 2008, which was the same year he won his first bracelet. He finished in 58th place in the 2010 WSOP

Main Event In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

Other poker ventures

Benyamine played high-stakes

online poker Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 t ...

under his own name at

Full Tilt Poker Full Tilt Poker is an Irish online poker card room and online casino that opened in June 2004. Formerly privately owned by Tiltware, LLC and later by the Rational Entertainment Group, the site was acquired by The Stars Group (then known as Amaya ...

until the site was shut down.

Poker earnings

As of 2020, his total live tournament winnings exceed $7,800,000. His forty cashes at the WSOP account for $2,541,000 of those winnings.

Personal life

Benyamine lives in

Henderson Henderson may refer to: People *Henderson (surname), description of the surname, and a list of people with the surname * Clan Henderson, a Scottish clan Places Argentina *Henderson, Buenos Aires Australia *Henderson, Western Australia Canada *H ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

. He has one daughter, and was formerly engaged to professional poker and

blackjack Blackjack (formerly black jack or ''vingt-un'') is a casino banking game. It is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. It uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as " twenty-one ...

player Erica Schoenberg. The couple have since separated.

References

External links

Card Player profileGlobal Poker Index profileHendon Mob profileWPT profileWSOP profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benyamine, David French expatriate sportspeople in the United States French poker players People deported from the United States Sportspeople from Henderson, Nevada Sportspeople from Paris World Poker Tour winners World Series of Poker bracelet winners Poker After Dark tournament winners 1972 births Living people